„Nejsem ateista, ale nechce se mi věřit, že by Bůh zatratil člověka kvůli troše potěšení.“
Zdroj: [Mevald Vodičková, Jarmila, 6 slavných milenek anglických králů, History revue, 2011, 2, 55]
Datum narození: 29. květen 1630
Datum úmrtí: 6. únor 1685
Karel II. Stuart byl král Anglie, Skotska a Irska.
Jeho otec, král Karel I. Stuart podlehl svým protivníkům a anglickému parlamentu v občanské válce a byl 30. ledna 1649 popraven. Parlament nejmenoval Karla II. jeho nástupcem, ale dokonce vydal nařízení označující toto jmenování nezákonným. Anglie se de facto stala republikou a země byla řízena Oliverem Cromwellem. Skotsko bylo nezávislým královstvím a tak ho skotský parlament jmenoval 5. února 1649 skotským králem. Karel II. byl korunován jako skotský panovník 1. ledna 1651. Po porážce od Cromwellova vojska 3. září 1651 v bitvě u Worcesteru unikl na kontinent, kde strávil dalších devět let.
Politická krize po smrti Olivera Cromwella roku 1658 vedla k tomu, že byl požádán, aby se vrátil a nastoupil na trůn a byla tak obnovena monarchie. Karel dorazil do Londýna 29. května 1660. Dokumenty vydávané po tomto roce byly datovány tak, jako by se stal nástupcem svého otce hned po jeho smrti. Po jeho nástupu na trůn došlo k uvolnění veřejného života svázaného v předchozím období přísnými puritánskými pravidly. V době jeho panování, přesněji roku 1666, byl Londýn zasažen dvěma katastrofami: Velkým morem a Velkým požárem.
Zdroj: [Mevald Vodičková, Jarmila, 6 slavných milenek anglických králů, History revue, 2011, 2, 55]
As quoted by Philibert de Gramont (1701), in Memoirs of the Court of Charles the Second (1846) by Anthony Hamilton, edited by Sir Walter Scott.
Kontext: Mrs. Lane and I took our journey towards Bristol, resolving to lie at a place called Long Marson, in the vale of Esham.
But we had not gone two hours on our way but the mare I rode on cast a shoe; so we were forced to ride to get another shoe at a scattering village, whose name begins with something like Long—. And as I was holding my horse's foot, I asked the smith what news? He told me that there was no news that he knew of, since the good news of the beating of the rogues the Scots. I asked him whether there was none of the English taken that joined with the Scots? He answered, that he did not hear that that rogue Charles Stewart was taken; but some of the others, he said, were taken, but not Charles Stewart. I told him, that if that rogue were taken he deserved to be hanged, more than all the rest, for bringing in the Scots. Upon which he said, that I spoke like an honest man, and so we parted.
As quoted by Philibert de Gramont (1701), in Memoirs of the Court of Charles the Second (1846) by Anthony Hamilton, edited by Sir Walter Scott.
Kontext: Mrs. Lane and I took our journey towards Bristol, resolving to lie at a place called Long Marson, in the vale of Esham.
But we had not gone two hours on our way but the mare I rode on cast a shoe; so we were forced to ride to get another shoe at a scattering village, whose name begins with something like Long—. And as I was holding my horse's foot, I asked the smith what news? He told me that there was no news that he knew of, since the good news of the beating of the rogues the Scots. I asked him whether there was none of the English taken that joined with the Scots? He answered, that he did not hear that that rogue Charles Stewart was taken; but some of the others, he said, were taken, but not Charles Stewart. I told him, that if that rogue were taken he deserved to be hanged, more than all the rest, for bringing in the Scots. Upon which he said, that I spoke like an honest man, and so we parted.
On his deathbed, asking that his favourite mistress, Nell Gwynne, be looked after, as quoted in History of My Own Time (1734), by Gilbert Burnet, Vol.II, Bk.iii, Ch. 17
As quoted in A History of England (1849) by Thomas Babington Macaulay, Vol. I, Ch. 4, p. 437
To the Earl of Manchester, as quoted in the notes to Hudibras (1674), Part 1, Canto 1, by Samuel Butler, edited by Henry George Bohn, (1859)
On the House of Lords' debate on Lord Ross's Divorce Bill (1610), as quoted in King Charles the Second (1931) by Arthur Bryant